Last month Julia Frey and I visited the East Los Angeles location of The Salvation Army to deliver the 1,772 diapers (and 160 wipes!) I collected at Bag Lady Promotions’ We Heart Moms event during the summer. It was wonderful to see helpful, smiling people at the ready to help their neighbors with things like food from the food pantry, signing up for social services, and as the director told us, creating holiday meals for people who are lonely or broke.
While many of the diapers we delivered were kept as an emergency stash, the Salvation Army contacted families who were already on their list of people who were in need. This is a story that came from their “diaper distribution day.”
“All three mothers live in the same house sharing rent and bills. All three are currently unemployed and taking care of their newborn children. They are all married and their husbands work for minimum wage salary. Because husband’s earnings are not enough to cover for all household expenses the three families had to come together and live in one house where rent and bills are split in half. The mother on the left has 3 children, mother in the middle has 2 children, and mother on the right has 3 children. These three families are usual clients of the Salvation Army that come for food, and transportation assistance. Because all three mothers have babies about the same age when one of them runs out of diapers she asks the other two to borrow some for the week. The three mothers try to help each other as much as they can. All three need the assistance about the same, but coming together and living together allows them to help each other by baby-sitting their children when one has a doctor appointment or has a school conference with their children. Families would like to thank Help a Mother Out for the diapers received. They are very grateful for everything received.”
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